Cricket match row: Suspended SVSU students, NGO staff exchange blows

Srinagar: Unruly scenes were witnessed Wednesday during a meeting organized by an NGO to discuss the suspension of Kashmiri students by an Uttar Pradesh university on charges of celebrating Pakistan’s win over India in the recently held Asia Cup.
Rabia Baji, chairperson All India Centre for Urban and Rural Development (AICURD), which had facilitated the admission of the 67 Kashmiri students at Meerut’s Swami Vivekanand Subharti University (SVSU), had convened a meeting at her Jawahar Nagar office here to discuss the issue of suspension and its aftermath with the students and their parents, reports said.
However, the meeting ran into rough weather after some suspended students and the AICURD staff members entered into an altercation before exchanging blows. Around 40 parents were present at the office when the scuffle broke out.
“A meeting of the suspended students and their parents was organized to discuss the strategy following the recent controversy. My concern was that the students should not suffer and their career must be saved. Everything we going fine when a group of 10 students got up and started ransacking my office. Even my office staff was assaulted,” Rabia Baji claimed.
She said the students, “who created mayhem,” want migration from the SVSU. “The accused students don’t want the issue to get solved.”
“While some students demanded migration from the university, some parents opined that their wards won’t rejoin classes unless varsity guarantees their security. We had also prepared two separate lists in this regard,” she added.
She said she has lodged a complaint with the police station Rajbagh seeking action against the accused students. “I need security and that is why I called police,” she added.
However, denying her allegations as “baseless”, the students blamed AICURD staff for attacking them.
“Her (Rabia Baji’s) staff thrashed us. The furniture and other things in her office got damaged during the scuffle when they beat us,” Aijaz Ahmad, one of the students, said.
He said a staff member of the NGO provoked him by posing him objectionable questions. “The staff member asked me about my father. He taunted me by saying ‘are you a don from downtown’,” Ahmad said.
Meanwhile, a parent, who attended the meeting, said they wouldn’t send their wards unless varsity guarantees their safety.
Abdul Aziz, a parent, who hails from Pattan, said that he would not send his son to the university unless his son’s safety is guaranteed.
Meanwhile, a senior police official confirmed that a complaint has been received from the AICURD chairperson about the scuffle.
“An official was sent to the office. We are looking into the matter and the details will be shared soon,” he said.

 

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